iOS Development
Start here. This skill coordinates the Apple skills collection — it tells you *which* skill to use and *when*, so you get opinionated guidance and full API references together.
Operating Rules
- Do not bridge UIKit/AppKit when SwiftUI has a native solution — bridging adds state-sync bugs, breaks SwiftUI composition (animations, environment), and complicates lifecycle management
- Do not enforce specific architectures (MVVM, VIPER, MV, TCA, etc.) — encourage separating business logic from views without mandating how
- Liquid Glass is the default iOS 26+ design system — use system glass behaviors naturally, but add custom
GlassEffectmodifiers only when they serve the UI, not for decoration - Present performance optimizations as suggestions backed by reasoning, not blanket requirements
- When you need exact API details, grep the framework reference skills — they contain full Apple documentation
Task Workflows
Review existing code
- Read the code and identify which topics apply
- Run the Correctness Checklist below — violations are bugs
- Use the Topic Router to load the relevant guide for each topic
- For API correctness, grep the matching framework reference skill
Improve existing code
- Run the correctness checklist first
- For performance issues: use
guide-swiftui-performance-audit - For view structure / long bodies: use
guide-swiftui-view-refactor - For navigation, state, or pattern questions: use
guide-swiftui-ui-patterns - For visual quality: use
ios-ui-craft - For API details: grep the matching framework reference skill
Build a new feature
- Design data flow first — identify owned vs. injected state
- For UI patterns and app wiring: use
guide-swiftui-ui-patterns - For API details: grep the matching framework reference skill
- Structure views for optimal diffing — extract subviews early
- Run the correctness checklist before finishing
- For visual polish: use
ios-ui-craft
Topic Router
The Guide column has opinionated, short pattern guides. The API Reference column has full Apple documentation as grepable Markdown — use apple-docs-index to find which framework has what.
| Topic | Guide | API Reference |
|---|---|---|
| State management | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (state.md, binding.md, observation.md, environment.md) |
| View composition | guide-swiftui-view-refactor | swiftui (view-protocol.md) |
| Performance | guide-swiftui-performance-audit | — |
| Navigation | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (navigationstack.md, navigationsplitview.md, navigationlink.md) |
| Sheets & modals | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (sheet.md, inspector.md, alert.md, confirmationdialog.md) |
| Lists & ForEach | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (list.md) |
| ScrollView | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (scrollview.md) |
| Forms & input | — | swiftui (form.md, textfield.md, picker.md, toggle.md, slider.md) |
| Charts | guide-swiftui-charts | swiftui (chart.md, charts-overview.md) |
| Animations | guide-swiftui-animations | swiftui (swiftui-overview.md) |
| Layout | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (geometryreader.md, grid.md, hstack.md, vstack.md, zstack.md, spacer.md) |
| TabView | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | swiftui (tabview.md) |
| Liquid Glass | ios-design-consultant | ios-liquid-glass |
| Visual design | ios-ui-craft | hig |
| Accessibility | guide-swiftui-ui-patterns | hig |
| macOS apps | guide-macos-spm-packaging | swiftui, uikit |
| Data persistence | guide-swiftdata | swiftdata |
| Testing | guide-swift-testing | swift-testing, xcuitest |
| Concurrency | guide-swift-concurrency | swift-concurrency |
| In-app purchases | — | storekit |
| Maps | — | mapkit |
| Health data | — | healthkit |
| Notifications | — | usernotifications |
| App Intents / Siri | — | appintents |
| Widgets | — | widgetkit |
| App Store metadata | apple-aso | — |
| Finding docs | apple-docs-index | — |
Correctness Checklist
These are hard rules — violations are always bugs:
@Stateproperties areprivate@Bindingonly where a child needs to mutate parent state- Values passed in are never declared as
@State— they silently ignore updates - Use
@Statewith@Observableclasses — not@StateObjectorObservableObject - Use
@Bindablefor injected observables that need bindings ForEachuses stable identity — never.indiceson dynamic content- Each
ForEachelement produces a constant number of views .animation(_:value:)always includes thevalue:parameter@FocusStateproperties areprivate@Observableclasses are@MainActor— Swift 6 strict concurrency requires it- Property wrappers (
@AppStorage,@SceneStorage,@Query) inside@Observableclasses are marked@ObservationIgnored— they conflict with the macro and cause compiler errors - No business logic in
body— use.task,.onChange, or methods - No
AnyViewunless truly unavoidable — fix with better composition
Related Skills
Design trio:
/ios-ui-craft— Build visually striking interfaces (produces code)/ios-design-consultant— Design advice and rationale (no code)/ios-liquid-glass— Liquid Glass API reference
Workflow guides:
/guide-swiftui-ui-patterns— Navigation, state, sheets, component patterns/guide-swiftui-animations— Implicit/explicit animation, transitions, keyframes/guide-swiftui-charts— Marks, axes, selection, styling, accessibility/guide-swiftui-view-refactor— View structure, extraction, MV patterns/guide-swiftui-performance-audit— Diagnose and fix performance issues/guide-swift-testing— Swift Testing patterns, async tests, common agent mistakes/guide-swift-concurrency— Concurrency patterns, actors, diagnostics, bug patterns/guide-swiftdata— SwiftData patterns, predicates, CloudKit constraints/guide-macos-spm-packaging— Build macOS apps with SwiftPM
Utilities:
/apple-docs-index— Find the right Apple documentation/simulator-utils— Simulator screenshots and device management/apple-aso— App Store Optimization